God has a sense of humor...

...and sometimes, it's downright mean.

We went to Sashiu Beach on Saturday, which was awesome. (Picture to come -- although one thing I'll maybe never get over is the way Japan likes to ruin its pristine beach views with ugly risers and breakers. Of course, I say this as an American who's never had to deal with a tsunami.) I swam, grilled some grillin', got some sun, all good.

Afterwards, we went and saw the Stone Buddhas in Usuki, and when we were trying to decide whether or not to pray at the statues, I realized that for the first time in ages -- if not forever -- I couldn't think of anything I really needed or wanted at that moment. "You know," I said, "life is being pretty good to me right now. I'm doing okay."

I did, actually, wind up praying for the patience to actually work on studying Japanese. But usually I'm all about a chance to talk to God/gods/what have you and try to bargain the miseries of my life away. Saturday? No miseries. Doing good.

So then, of course, I got sick.

Which is really nothing new for me, to be fair. I get sick at the drop of a hat. A baby in NICU has a better immune system than I do. The Bubble Boy probably beats me out. But except for my regular wrangle with feminine woes, I'd been doing surprisingly well here. Until now.

Of course, going to the doctor here is one of the few things I'm still seriously afraid of. This isn't a dig on Japanese medicine: I despise going to the doctor back home, too, even though I typically need to at least once a month. Combine my normal hatred of doctors with a language barrier and neurotic Jewish hypochondria and you get some real anxiety brewing. Which, let me tell you, is a great state of mind for A) fighting illness and B) teaching classes.

Anyway, I'm trying to avoid the possibility of having to go to the doctor for as long as possible. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this just goes away. Wish me luck! This has already been enough of a learning experience for me -- just yesterday, I got to learn how to take time off for wanting to roll over and die. That's enough for one week, I think.